Just got back home from the Enchantment! Wonderful vacation, and our ports of call and the crew on the ship were great! Here are my thoughts:

The ship:
A great ship, similar to the last ship I was on, even though it is a different class. My last cruise was on the Majesty. There were a few instances on the cruise where I felt motion, but nothing too serious. Loved the pool deck and the rock wall, as well as the bingo sessions and karaoke nights. I did have one exciting moment, which I'll get to later.

Crew:
Great crew members, and had a great dining room waiter. By the second night, she knew that after dinner I wanted decaf coffee as well as a dessert. She did most of the work, and I tipped her accordingly. The activities director and his staff were great and entertaining. That second day (first full day of the cruise, Sunday in this case) during Bingo he was a little "annoyed" that the captain came over the PA when he was explaining the bingo rules and stated out loud "Oh, come on captain. Not while I'm speaking." Then after he thought he was done, he stated to release the PA system, then the same announcement was repeated in Spanish, which only annoyed him further. This happened again later while he was explaining line dance steps shortly after we left Grand Cayman on Monday, and he stated the same thing. Then shortly after we left Grand Cayman the captain blew the horn three times, and the activities director again got annoyed, but in a funny way, stated "Come on captain, behave yourself."

Grand Cayman:
A very nice island, and I did one of the many Stingray City excursions offered through the ship at a sandbar. This was a shallow water site, so no snorkel equipment was necessary, since the water was only 3 1/2 feet deep and we could easily see the stingrays from the surface. We got back to the pier around noon, then I did a little shopping, then got back on the ship for lunch. We got back late, as my ticket stated departure time of 8:15, duration 2.5 hours. I had planned to do another excursion, which was beachfront horseback riding, but missed that. Knowing that was a possibility, I booked an excursion on my own at our next port of call, Cozumel, Mexico.

Cozumel, Mexico
Did a beach day at Mr. Sancho's beach club. Had a very relaxing day horseback riding, parasailing, and just lounging on the beach. This excursion I booked on my own.

Days at Sea:
Lots to do on the ship, but I mainly just got up early, and lounged by the pool, with some breaks for bingo and food.

The food:
Great food. For dinner, I ate in the dining room. I had shrimp ravioli one night, roasted duck the second night, mussels, shrimp and scallops over pasta another, tiger shrimp another night, and on the last night I had the lobster tail and shrimp. For my appetizers most nights I kept it simple and just ordered a caesar salad. For dessert, one night I got cheesecake, another night tiramisu, two nights I got just vanilla ice cream.

Overall a very nice vacation. Now, the exciting part I mentioned earlier. At one bingo session the prize was a free 5 night cruise. I was the first one to scream "BINGO!" after I had the pattern. However, another person also had a little bit of a "late" call of bingo since she was playing two cards. Both were verified, and were true claims of bingo. This meant, that since it was a cruise vacation, we had to go to a tiebreaker, and I lost in the tiebreaker. The tiebreaker procedure was that we would keep playing until someone had a number that the other person didn't have, and I lost the tiebreaker on the first number.

Okay, I know I've probably gone on way too long. Taking the day off tomorrow, then back to work on Monday.

A good friend was on the cruise with you, MCPayne. She won this cruise when she was on Enchantment a few months ago. And the woman that won the cruise that was almost yours was at my friend's dinner table. Small world.

Better luck next time. Good to know somebody is still giving away free cruises. I can remember when Princess used to have a drawing for a free cruise at every Captain's Cocktail Party. Now it's a bottle of champagne.

Originally posted by f-mattox:
A good friend was on the cruise with you, MCPayne. She won this cruise when she was on Enchantment a few months ago. And the woman that won the cruise that was almost yours was at my friend's dinner table. Small world.

Wow f-mattox. Talk about a small world. I saw in the roll call thread that another member went on this cruise, but didn't get a chance to meet him, since he (and I assume his wife) were traveling with another couple.

Embarkation:
It went really smoothly for me. My flight landed at 11:45 am on that morning of the cruise, and I think I was on the Enchantment by 12:30 - 12:45. Security was a breeze at the port. They just asked for my ID, then waved us through. I didn't book any transfers, just took a cab, even though it appeared to be the same price as an RCI transfer.

Debarkation:
Another smooth process, but different than Miami. You meet in a designated lounge before your departure time, then they will call you down to deck 4 to the gangway at your departure time to claim your luggage and clear customs. You go to the same area in baggage claim that matches your departure number. This is not a carousel system like my last cruise 2 years ago out of Miami, but found my luggage easily. I had the 8:30 departure time, clearing customs was easy for me, and I was through Fort Lauderdale Airport security by 9:30, and had lots of time to kill before my flight at 1:00 pm. I spent that time just listening to my iPod.